“I’ve always been open, honest and tell it the way it is”
16:53, 16 Sep 2025Updated 16:55, 16 Sep 2025
Ricky Hatton at the Manchester Evening News office for his webchat on the MEN website in 2013(Image: andrew stuart)
A year after he had tearfully announced his retirement, Ricky Hatton came to the offices of the Manchester Evening News to speak to our readers, communicating with people in the way he always did: openly, with brutal honesty and with plenty of that trademark self-deprecating humour.
Of course, he charmed everyone including the journalists at the MEN who were facilitating his webchat on October 23, 2013. Ricky patiently spelled out the names of fellow boxers which tripped from his tongue for journalist Andrew Stuart (not a boxing fan) as he typed out the answers given by ‘The Hitman’.
He admitted he thought about a comeback every day, but confirmed he had finally achieved closure on his fighting career. His last comeback bout in 2012 against Vyacheslav Senchenko ended in tearful defeat and afterwards he swore he would never return to the ring. A promise he kept.
He spoke openly, as he always did, about his troubles.
Ricky Hatton at the Manchester Evening News office for his webchat with the MEN readers(Image: Manchester Evening News)
When asked about the potential for a comeback, he said: “I think about it every day, whenever there’s a clip on TV, Carl Froch or Amir Khan and the crowd are roaring. I’ve just recently come back from Belfast and what a passionate crowd they were for Carl Frampton and I think ‘I miss it’.
“But I never think let’s give it another go again. I did that against Senchenko. Senchenko is a good fighter and a few years ago I’d have gone through him, but now I haven’t that tells me get your pipe and slippers and get on the settee because you can’t turn the clock back. I wish I could, but I can’t.”
Talking about his auto-biography War And Peace: My Story, he added: “Fighting at the Arena with Kostya Tszyu, fighting at the City of Manchester Stadium… there are lots of boxing stories that people will like to read about.
“Sadly I’ve had troubles as well. I’ve struggled to cope with my defeats against Mayweather and Pacquiao. I fell out with my best friend and trainer Billy Graham. I fell out with my parents. So in the end I was depressed, I was suicidal, I didn’t care whether I lived or died.
“Some of the stories in there I’ve been very, very open, I think some jaws will hit the floor. I’ve always been open, honest and tell it the way it is, I think that’s why people like me and they’ll like the book.”
Ricky Hatton taken by Andrew Stuart the Manchester Evening News office for his webchat on the MEN website(Image: andrew stuart)
He seemed to admit his fight with depression would last a lifetime. He said: “I don’t think you ever get away from depression but I’m in a lot better place to cope with it. If I am down or depressed I don’t go to the pub.
“I still have the odd drink but I’m in a better place – depression and drink don’t really go together. I go and see a psychiatrist once a month which makes me feel better about myself. I have good days and bad days but I have more good days than bad. The book helped me on all fronts.”
Andrew Stuart, who typed up Ricky’s answers, recalled: “He was such a nice person, no high and mightiness. I was a lowly web person and he was as willing to talk to me as he was the sports editor and editor.”
Hatton was found dead at his home in Gee Cross, Hyde, on Sunday morning. Greater Manchester Police has confirmed that a body has been found and said that the death is not being treated as suspicious.